he was asked flat out is the white house ready to go over the fiscal cliff and boom he says, absolutely, as if that is a good thing. i mean there are defense contractors who are going to be laying off workers, there are all kinds of negative ramifications to all of this. but the white house apparently is ready to take the jump. >> well, they are certainly ready to say it. the republicans have a weaker hand than i thought they would originally have about a couple months ago, but the idea that president obama wants to start his second term by plunging the country into a recession, a huge sell off in the stock market, and by being perceived as generally sort of willing to play chicken with the economy doesn't sound like a brilliant political move to me. jon: you think that's all talk? >> i think it's a game of chicken, i really do. i think that the republicans would probably get a lot of blame in the beginning, and that's maybe what they are thinking of and they are trying to scare the republicans, but over the long term there is just no way this administration wants to go overt fisca over